I grew-up in Smalltown, USA, in the ’50s and ’60s, where people talked to one another with respect, and met at church gatherings to socialize. Like many, I had a mother who made her kids the priority and set an example of a strong work ethic with a moral compass. My mom, Loretta Schultz, was a grade school teacher. Her specialty was teaching reading. She started teaching in a one room country school and worked into a classroom with only two grades. She loved to work with children and taught many that struggled with reading. I aspire to be a better person because of her. I don’t fear failure. Instead, I fear letting that one person down who had been there for me through childhood and my young adult years. Being Mother’s Day, I’m looking back on how my mom has influenced my work ethic and leadership style. And while these are lessons from my mom, they can just as easily apply to any businessperson in any industry.1. Be honest — your word is your bond You can spend a lifetime developing a bond based on trust and lose it within seconds. People want to deal with people they know and trust. If you say you’re going to do something, do it.2. Be humble Be humble in your position. People don’t respect a title, they respect the person. Work as a team, work hard for your team and help and support where needed. Make every person feel important. Don’t criticize, we are human and all make mistakes. 3. Control your emotions, have patience, and let the problem work itself out She was patient and always approached things with reason. You have to understand the problem. Don’t react to the problem, but work the problem — stay in control. It will all work out with clear thinking and decision making.4. Respect people and their opinions You need to treat people as individuals and understand their position and opinion as it relates to the matter. It’s not your responsibility to agree or disagree, but to respect that everyone will have an opinion. You collect people’s opinions and make a decision. Commit to your decision and lead people based on that decision.5. Be Fair She always treated us fairly. My brother and I were very different, but we both got the same treatment. She was well respected because she was fair and treated people with kindness. She always listened to both sides of a story and didn’t lay blame. Yesterday was in the past and we needed to start fresh if we made a mistake.

Hard work and skills will only get you so far. The most successful people also find joy in working life. It's not as difficult as it may seem. Here are the top habits for people who are happy at work.By Lisa Evans Fast Company 4-9-2014Study, work hard, and you will be successful.This was the mantra repeated by educators throughout my youth. None of them added "be happy" to the success equation.But a growing body of research in positive psychology and neuroscience is demonstrating that happiness is the secret ingredient to success. It turns out, our brains are more engaged, creative, productive, and resilient when in a positive state.Jim Donovan, consultant, speaker and proclaimed "happiness expert" offers workplace advice to employers and employees on how to make their work lives more fulfilling. His latest book Happy @ Work comes on the heels of a Gallup poll that reported employee disengagement in the U.S. as high as 70%.All this unhappiness comes with a high price tag to businesses, costing more than $550 billion a year in lost productivity. In his book, Donovan identifies 60 simple steps individuals can take to improve their happiness and get back on the path to success. Here are six of the top things happy workers do:Change the word “problem” to “challenge.” “Problems tend to be things we try to avoid, while challenges are things we step up to fix,” writes Donovan. Making this minor change in vocabulary can have a big impact on how you deal with a situation. A challenge can be interpreted as an opportunity to showcase your talents or learn a new skill.Mix up your daily routine.Many of us get stuck in the daily rut; driving the same route to work, eating the same breakfast, starting the day by filtering through emails. Changing up our routine stimulates the brain, enhancing creativity and happiness. “By changing your everyday patterns and habitual processes, you will be creating new neural connections in your brain.Simply changing your route to and from work will expose you to new visual and auditory stimuli, [for example],” writes Donovan. This explains why extraordinary thinkers such as Steve Jobs and Steven Spielberg were known to on long walks to stimulate breakthrough ideas.Start the day with the big questions.Asking yourself a series of empowering questions such as “what am I looking forward to today?”, “what am I grateful for today?” first thing in the morning can have you starting the day with purpose and get your brain into a positive state.Arrive at work early.Nothing can damper a mood faster than getting stuck in rush hour traffic. Leaving home even 20 minutes earlier can have you arriving at the office in a less frazzled state, giving you some extra time to ease into the day ahead, and grab that first cup of coffee in peace.Have an office playlist. Music is a feel-good tool. If you’ve ever heard a song that immediately transports you to a past event, you know the power of music. Music can improve how you feel at work or in any given situation. Donovan recommends developing a feel-good playlist and notes even Olympic medalist Michael Phelps was seen bopping to his iPod moments before breaking the world record for winning the most Olympic medals.Avoid energy zappers.You know who they are; those people who go on for hours about their personal problems, the latest international disaster or the traffic jam on the freeway. These individuals appear obsessed with finding something wrong in every situation.When possible, attempt to surround yourself with winners; those who are positive and uplifting and just seem to radiate happiness.